


Round and round we go

by dragonesdepapel



Series: Smoke and Mirrors [4]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Kinda, in which i finally earn that adrinette tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-31
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-07 02:03:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11048997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonesdepapel/pseuds/dragonesdepapel
Summary: "If you are so clever, when did you figure it out?""Pretty early on, I think. It's clear that he's very important to you."Marinette's expression softened. "I know that. I've always known that."





	Round and round we go

**Author's Note:**

> You know those moments where no matter how much you force yourself to stare at word documents or notebook pages you can't get more than a few words out at a time? Yeah I had that kind moment for like a year. Thank you to everyone who left kind commentson my fics. They really helped keep me trying to get over that writing funk.

Adrien didn't mind photoshoots. He really didn't. They were fun most of the time.

This wasn't one of those times. 

To be honest, he hadn't realized how tedious this photoshoot had become until he noticed his friends sitting on a blanket a few meters away from him. He hadn't seen them until they were completely settled.  Adrien felt like he had been holding the same position for hours _._ Maybe he had. After all, he _had_ missed his three best friends entering the park and finding a place directly in his line of vision. Who knew what else might have happened without him noticing.  

And it looked like they had been trying to get his attention for a while, if the way they were exaggeratedly waving their hands was any indication. Before he could think better of it, he smiled, the first sincere smile so far, and nodded at them. That seemed to appease them. Adrien hoped the director didn't mind. He had _very_ particular ideas on how Adrien was supposed to hold himself. No matter how many times Adrien had worked with him before, he was never fully prepared for it.   

Adrien distracted himself with trying to remember if he had told his friends where the shoot would take place. He was fairly certain he hadn't. He was also sure there was nothing Marinette and Alya couldn't get if they really wanted it. He spared a glance towards them whenever he thought he could get away with it. They waved every time they noticed. He wished he would get a break soon so he could go say hi.  

He wouldn't say that time seemed to fly after that, but he was distracted enough that the end of the shoot caught him by surprise. He rushed to change into his clothes and headed towards the tree his friends had been sitting under. By the time he made it there, however, only Marinette was waiting for him.  

"Hey! What are you doing here?"  

"We wanted to see you. It was Nino's idea, since you have been so busy this week."  

Adrien knew, of course he knew, that he had the best friends one could ask for. But to be honest, he was still fairly new at this friendship thing, so he was constantly amazed by the things they would do for him.  

"They wanted to say hi too but Alya got a call from her mother the second you guys finished shooting. She was needed for some emergency babysitting and Nino offered to walk her back so..."  

"Well, you guys had already waited long enough for me. I don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing know..." He trailed off, looking around for Nathalie. He had no idea what time it was, but he was pretty sure he had something scheduled after the shoot.  

"That's ok, we knew you probably wouldn't have time to hang with us. We just wanted to make sure you didn't forget what we looked like" she joked.  

Marinette had a rule for about not thanking her for " _things friends are supposed to do anywa_ _y"_. (It went along with the one about not apologizing for " _things he shouldn't apologize anyway"_.) But Adrien was pretty sure this one was not one of those cases. After all, most friendships their age didn't involve disappearing for days because of work.   

A new text alert distracted him before he could say anything. He had been smiling since he first noticed his friends at the park, but his face must have betrayed him anyway.  

"Good news?"  

"Nathalie cleared the rest of my afternoon for this shoot. She thought it would take much longer. So I'm free if you want to hang out? I mean, if you are free too, since you've been here for a while..."  

"Only if we get ice cream. Not sure why but I've been craving one since we got here."  

"Deal" he said, stepping aside and gesturing for her to lead the way. 

"So how's school?" he said once they were outside the park. 

"Really? You want to talk about school?" 

"Yeah, I miss school." 

"Of course you do" she said, rolling her eyes, like he knew she would. The affection that coated her words was unexpected though. 

"But seriously, did you finish the biology assignment that's due tomorrow?" 

"I did. And before you ask, I've already gotten started on the history one for next week." 

"Great, then I assume you are already done with math as well." 

She groaned. "I forgot about that." 

Adrien couldn't help but laugh at her distress. It earned him a punch in the shoulder. 

"It's ok, it's just a couple of problems. You have plenty of time to solve them before tomorrow's class." 

They arrived at the shop, and Adrien held the door open for her. 

"You know you don't have to do that, right?" She asked as she walked in. 

He followed her. "It's only polite." 

"No, I meant keeping track of my homework. I know I forget stuff from time to time, but it's not your problem." 

The conversation got interrupted when they were called to order their ice creams. Adrien waited until they were outside again to resume talking. 

"It's not a problem. I do it for Alya too. She gets so focused on the ladyblog that sometimes doesn't notice she's getting behind with school. And you are usually busy, so it's normal to let things slip. It helps me remember all the things I have to do. It's like you are doing _me_ a favor." 

"I'm not falling for that." She got distracted trying to stop her ice cream from dripping onto her hand. "You already have enough on your plate to worry about my responsibilities" she said once she had it under control. 

"Look, I can stop doing it if it annoys you, but it really is no problem Mari." He handed her one of the extra napkins he had taken. "I meant it when I said it helps keep track of my own stuff. And it's not like I'm doing anything for you, it's just asking if you did your math homework." 

"Ok" she conceded. "But only if you let me try a bit of yours" she said, waving her own ice cream. "That green thing is kind of freaking me out. No food should look like that."  

He chuckled. He tried to stay away from things with his face on it, but he couldn't resist it when he saw the Chat Noir Special. The chocolate ice cream was so dark it looked black, and it had a coat of white chocolate sauce on top that was dyed fluorescent green. 

"Sure." He handed it to Marinette, and took hers. 

"You can take a bit of mine too. The strawberry is really good." 

It was. And it as sprinkled with cereal covered in dark chocolate to emulate Ladybug's spots. Adrien had considering ordering it, but his love for chocolate had won out in the end. 

Marinette took a spoonful, and made a funny face when she tried it. 

"You don't like it?" 

"I do, but it's a bit too much chocolate for me." 

"There's not such thing as too much chocolate" he said in mock offense. He offered her ice cream back. 

"Only for you Adrien. Well, you and" but she cut herself off. "Never mind" she said, shaking her head as it to clear it from whatever she was going to say next. 

They walked around in silence for a few minutes.  Adrien wasn't sure where they were headed but he was content with letting Marinette lead him. There seemed to be something on her mind now, and he wasn't about to interrupt her musings. 

From what he had seen, Marinette's distress could be divided into three categories. The first one was loud. It happened when she was so upset about something that she couldn't possibly keep it in. On those cases the best was to let her vent first, then gently help her calm down. There was a thin line between giving her a space to voice her concerns and watching her wallow in self-pity. She was good at noticing the line herself, for the most part. 

Then there were times like this, when the opposite happened. For more important matters, she needed time to process and find the right words to talk about it. Alya usually helped her by prodding for details. Adrien preferred to be patient. He knew she would come around in the end, and he didn't feel comfortable pushing for something she might not be ready to share. 

The third kind was by far the worst. It was when something was so big that she couldn't hide that she was upset, but she wouldn't speak of it with anyone. Not even Alya. There wasn't much they could do on those occasions, except make sure nothing else bothered her. 

The park came back into view, and Adrien followed her to a clear spot. They were done with their ice creams so Adrien threw everything in a trashcan. Then Marinette took the blanket from before out of her backpack and he helped her spread it. She laid down looking at the sky. He sat cross legged near the corner of it.

He saw her take a deep breath and close her eyes. He leaned back on one hand, looking up. 

"So, I've come to a conclusion." 

"Oh?" he said casually, like he hadn't been waiting for the last five minutes to hear it. 

"Yeah I'm a terrible person." 

"Sure" he agreed easily. 

"No, listen, I'm being serious" she tried to argue. 

"Me too! I can't believe I didn't see it sooner." 

"Adrien you are not listening to me." She punched him lightly on the leg, but he kept his eyes focused on the sky. He thought sometimes it was harder for her to talk while maintaining eye contact. 

"Ok, tell me why." 

It took her a few seconds to answer. "I've been leading him on." 

"Your friend?" 

It was a guess, even if Adrien felt pretty confident that he was right. Marinette had the confusing habit of starting stories in the middle and expecting him to know what she was talking about.

"Yes! I've been leading him on this whole time!" 

"I'm afraid I'm going to need a more details than that, Mari." 

He heard her moving next to him. He looked down to find her glaring at him. She knew exactly what he was doing, the way he knew what she was doing. It was easier for Marinette to be irritated than to be sad. She was trying to deflect more than usual, which must have meant that she was really troubled by this. After a second she sighed, then flopped back down and resumed to look at the sky. 

"He flirts with me, ok? He has always done so. And I thought, you know, that that was just the way he was. He's always making jokes and doesn't take much seriously. And I thought... I thought he didn't mean it." She sighed again before continuing. "I would never..." 

"You would never what?" he prompted.

"I thought he didn't mean it" she repeated, almost whispering it. "I really did! I would have made it clear that I was not interested if I thought otherwise. I thought I did! But maybe I... Maybe I teased him a bit too much sometimes. I even... I even flirted back a few times. And I should have known better than that!" 

"Marinette, it's ok..." he tried to reassure her, but she covered her face with her arms. 

"I never meant to hurt him" she said so quietly that he struggled to hear it. 

"Of course you didn't Marinette." He let the silence linger for a second before continuing. "Did you guys have a fight? Did he say anything to you?" 

He really wished he didn't. Even if she had hurt her friend, she would have never made it on purpose. And Adrien's blood boiled at the thought that someone that Marinette cared so much about would make her feel so bad about something that wasn't her fault. But that was the only reason he could come up with that explained why she was so upset. 

But Marinette only laughed ruefully. 

"Him? The sweetest person I know? My best friend? The one person who has my back every step of the way? No, of course he didn't say anything, Adrien. Doesn't mean that it's not true." 

There was something weird about her voice and Adrien realized that she was crying. She was still hiding her face but he could see now how her shoulders were shaking a little. That threw him off for a second. Adrien had never seen her cry before, and he kind of hoped this was the first and last time. He didn't know how to handle this. 

They fell into silence again while Adrien tried to come up with the right thing to say. 

He wanted to reassure her that everything would be ok. That this wasn't her fault. That her friend was fine. But he couldn't do any of those things. They might be true, and he most sincerely thought they were, but he had no means to know that. He didn't even know this guy's name.  

"Do you think that talking to him about it would help?" he finally asked. 

"Yeah I don't think that would be the best idea" she said as she lowered her arms from her face. 

She avoided his eyes again when she wiped off a tear that had reached her cheek. The slightest of red framed her eyes. Apart from that, it seemed like she was perfectly fine. She just had needed a little time to pull herself together. 

"Why?"  

"Well..." 

They were back to familiar territory, and Adrien knew exactly what to do on these occasions. 

"You can tell me." 

"Of course I can" she said. She used her arms as a pillow but didn't look up at the sky. Adrien angled himself so she wouldn't have to strain her neck to look up at him. "Just... don't say anything until I'm done, ok?" She waited until he nodded. "I don't think it's a good idea because I kind of like him now." 

It was a good thing Marinette had asked him not to say anything for a while, because Adrien wasn't sure what he would have said otherwise. He felt a pang of jealousy despite his best efforts. But that wasn't important now. 

"I like him and it doesn't make any sense. Because, do I like him _like_ him? Or do I just like him now because he likes me? Could I really be that self-absorbed? Because if it's not that, why now? Did I always like him and never noticed? And what about you? I still like you the same amount. That didn't go away. As much as him, I think. I mean as much as you can measure this things, you know? And can you even _do_ that? Like two people at the same time? And how am I supposed to pick one then? Not to mention that you are both kind of similar. Does that mean you are both my type?" 

She took a deep breath then let out a long sigh. Adrien could instantly tell that she had taken a huge weight of her chest. 

"I know exactly what you mean" he said, thinking about how relieved he was that she was feeling better. 

He saw Marinette freeze next to him. Confused, he played his words back in his head and felt a sense of dread wash over him. It didn't sound like he thought it did, right? He needed to say something, anything, but words would not come to him. 

After a few tense seconds, Marinette sat up and crossed her arms. He looked at Adrien with a severe expression. 

"Please tell me you didn't say what I think you said." 

This time Adrien was the one covering his face. That certainly wasn't the way he wanted _that_ to go. 

Marinette started to laugh. And laugh. And laugh. Quite loud, too. He felt his face get hotter, and he instinctively knew that he was blushing. Adrien didn't blush. Not out of embarrassment anyway. To be honest, he had never quite believed that it was something that could happen. But here he was, blushing while one of his best friends laughed at him. He deserved it, for sure yet... 

"Are you done?" 

"Not quite" she answered between giggles. 

Adrien groaned and pressed his hands more firmly onto his eyes. He would never hear the end of this. He didn't even want to think about how their friends would react once Marinette told them. Adrien knew he deserved it. He had, after all, revealed that he had feelings for Marinette in the lamest way possible. Nino would never let him live it down. Alya might just about murder him. 

He lowered his hands with a sigh of his own. Eventually Marinette regained her composure and smiled kindly at Adrien. 

"Don’t worry Adrien, we’ll figure it out." 

Adrien knew that they would. Marinette was one of the most important people in his life. He refused to lose her because of his mixed up feelings. He also knew that they would be joking about this in the near future. Possibly nearer than he'd like. But right now he needed something other to think about than how he had _just confessed his feelings to Marinette_. By mistake. How could have he ever believed that he was good at this romance thing? 

He opened his mouth without quite knowing what was going to come out of it, but hoping that it would be better than what he had just said. Not that it was such a difficult thing to accomplish.  

"I’m actually relieved to hear you say that you have feelings for your friend. I thought I was going to have to break the news to you." 

That sobered her up immediately. 

"Excuse me?" 

Ok, he was wrong. He could dig himself into a deeper hole. But at least it got Marinette's attention away from his confession, right? 

"C'mon Marinette, it was obvious you had a crush on him. Even if you had a strong case of denial." 

"I'll have you know that I'm perfectly aware of my feelings, thank you very much. I don't need _you_ to tell me how I feel. Just because it took me a little time and... I mean, it's not that I didn't know. I just meant that..." 

He watched as she became more and more flustered and words seemed to fail her. Her face grew red and she tried to make up for her fragmented sentences with big hand gestures. In the end, she gave up, settling for glaring at him. Adrien couldn't help but chuckle. It only aggravated her anger. 

"You, Adrien Agreste" she said, finding her words again and pointing at him with an accusatory finger "have not right to call _me_ oblivious."   

"What’s that supposed to mean?"  

"I had the most obvious of crushes on you for most of the school year and you still needed me to spell it out for you."  

"Ok, first of all, I had already figured it out by the time you told me. Or at least I suspected it" he amended after she rolled her eyes. "And second, it’s not the same thing. That wasn’t about me and _my_ feelings."  

He really should stop talking before Marinette did something drastic to shut him up. But Marinette would be back at teasing him the second he let his guard down. Teasing her was much more fun for him anyway. 

"If you are so clever, when did _you_ figure it out?" 

"Pretty early on, I think. It's clear that he's very important to you." 

Marinette's expression softened. "I know that. I've always known that." 

Adrien felt glad that he didn't know her friend's name. He had never thought himself a jealous person but the incident with the Copycat had proven otherwise. He wanted to believe that he wouldn't do anything like that ever again, but he preferred not to have the option. Not to mention that he had no right to be jealous over Marinette. 

It also helped that he didn't have to give her Ladybug's name. Of course, he could always lie. But he didn't feel comfortable with lying to Marinette, even if it was a unavoidable. He couldn't even imagine what her reaction would be if she knew who he was really talking about. 

Marinette, who had fallen into silence, suddenly started giggling again. 

"I still can’t believe you confessed your feelings for me by mistake."  

"I still can’t believe you laughed in my face when I confessed my feelings for you" he said, pretending to glare.  

"At least you have good taste I guess. On the other hand, I only seem to like dorks" she sighed dramatically. 

"I don't disagree." There was no point in trying to defend himself from the dork comment. He had already tried and failed. Repeatedly. "But I do chose girls who are completely out of my league." 

"Wow, thanks." 

"What?" He didn't understand her sarcastic tone. Had he made another mistake? "I'm being serious." 

"Ok, while I technically agree with you, and you are damn right I'm out of your league, haven't you looked at a mirror lately? Or the most popular fashion magazines for that matter." 

"So? You are...you" he said simply. There was no better way to explain it, really. 

Marinette groaned. "Don't do that! No mushy stuff. We need rules. So we can keep this professional." 

"We need to keep our friendship professional?" He asked, amused. 

"Yes! So there are no misunderstandings." 

Adrien knew that there was no way this would turn into a misunderstanding.  They had had issues in their relationship before, and they had always solved them by talking. But he also noted how red Marinette's cheeks were now. Marinette didn't like feeling flustered, not when others could notice it. 

"Ok, that makes senses. Any other rules you need?" 

"I don't think so. You?" 

"Is it too much to ask not to tell Alya and Nino the exact details of...today?" 

Marinette smirked. "Yes, I'm sorry." 

"It was worth a shot." His phone vibrated in his pocket, so he took it out. He had a text from Nathalie reminding him that he needed to be back at the mansion soon. "I should be heading back. Do you need a ride?" 

"No, it's ok. I need to do some shopping before going home" 

They stood up, and Adrien helped her fold her blanket. They walked towards the entrance of the park, where Adrien knew that someone would appear to pick him up. 

"I'll text you about the math homework later. So you don't forget." 

"Your faith in me is astounding." 

"Maybe I just want an excuse to text you" he said. With a wink. And getting a bit too close to her face. What was it with today that had him acting without thinking? 

Marinette rolled her eyes. "I shouldn't be texting boys if I want to concentrate on my homework, don't you think?" She pushed him away by pressing one finger to his shoulder. Then started to walk away. 

Adrien didn't know about her, but it was clear that at least _he_ had a type. A very specific type. 

"See you tomorrow" he called after her.   

She turned around with a smile and waved. 

**Author's Note:**

> Btw you can always tell me if you find any errors. I proofread a bunch of times but I never seem to catch everything.
> 
> Also I'm on [tumblr](http://thebravething.tumblr.com) where I'm still overwhelmingly shy but much more likely to respond.


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